Tomatoes @ R100: Households feel the squeeze
Kitchen budgets of households are ‘in the red’ as tomatoes, an essential part of our platter, are selling at Rs 80-100 in the retail market.
“Tomatoes are being imported from Bangalore as it isn’t the season for tomatoes in UP. And their transportation during monsoon is pushing the prices up,” said Ramesh Chandra Maurya, a farmer of UP.
Green vegetables, including bitter gourd (karela), taroi, parwal, lauki etc are also being sold at inflated prices.
“For the last 2-3 days, taroi is being sold at Rs 80-100 in the retail markets due to rain. As vegetables perish in less time during this part of the year and transportation is difficult, the cost is high,” said Arjun, a vegetable seller in Gomti Nagar market.
“However, there is a lot of difference between the wholesale and retail rates due to hoarding by wholesalers. This must be checked,” said Shiv Kumar, a vegetable seller in Narhi market.
On the other hand, there has been bumper production of potato in the state this year, as a result of which growers are not getting proper prices for their produce.
Many farmers are planning to dump their produce rather than selling it at a loss in the retail market.
“The cost of potato in the city’s retail markets is Rs 15-20 per kg. But farmers are getting only Rs 4-5 per kg, which is less than the cost of production,” lamented Ram Saran Verma, a leading farmer of Barabanki.
Verma elaborated that a farmer spends about Rs 4-5 per kg on production and further Rs 1-2 for storage. This adds up the cost price to Rs 6-7 for every kg. “The wholesale price of potato has been fixed at Rs 4-5/kg and farmers are not getting more than that. Thus they are incurring losses, despite the high price of potato in the retail markets,” he added.
The farmers also cited “lack of government’s policy for potatoes.” “There are no processing units. There isn’t any policy for potato export supported by government. Thus, farmers in UP are bound to incur losses,” said Ramesh Chandra Maurya.